Indiana Public Media News

Assembly Approves Budget

By
Brandon Smith

Posted April 30, 2011

The state's $28 billion budget is on its way to the governor for his signature.

Photo: Noah Coffey (Flickr)

Lawmakers on Friday approved the state's $28 billion budget. The bill now awaits the governor's signature.

The Indiana General Assembly passed a budget along with a flurry of other bills Friday, on the final day of the session. Together, the House and Senate finalized more than a dozen bills Friday, including legislation on illegal immigration, a corporate tax cut, texting while driving and toll roads. But the final measure each house passed was the budget. The $28 billion finalized version includes a one point one billion dollar surplus, a potential taxpayer refund, no cuts in education and no tax increase. Co-author Luke Kenley says Indiana is still recovering from the recession, and the budget controls spending.

“You can measure this against any state in this country that suffered anywhere near a similar recession and you cannot find a performance compared to the government of the state of Indiana,” Kenley said.

Democrats applauded some considerations Republicans made but still had issued with the budget in areas like school funding. House Minority Leader Pat Bauer called for more spending right up to the end of the debate.

“I certainly will vote no and hope you all do so we can at least put maybe a little bit more of this $1.1 billion into some of these schools,” said Bauer.

The budget passed along party lines in both houses. It now goes to the governor for his signature.

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